National Booth(s) Needed

[Jewish-collector]

It's probably because they will have fewer booths than usual.

[prewarsports]

I usually call in March/April when my schedule is more firm and have always had my choice of at lest 40-50 booths. I figured I would be safe this year and contact them in Feb and was told "sorry we are sold out". I asked why they did not just make more booths available since there is apparently a hefty wait-list and was told they were already at capacity with the fire marshal. This show is in the same hall as the National has been for the last 15 years in Chicago and it used to have over 1000 dealers but now they sell out at about 400. Seems to me like they are closing the door on a lot of dealers that could make the show better. I guess this is why the show is not what it used to be. Take away the corporate booths and auction houses and you are looking at about 200-300 dealers there to sell stuff. In the 1990's 200 booths would have been a local show at the armory, now its the "National Convention." Go figure.

[Sportsnutcards]

I'm pretty sure it is the same exact layout and amount of dealers/tables as the last 3 Chicago nationals. they used to use the side room for dealers but I think the last time they did that was in 2008.

[Duluth Eskimo]

Originally Posted by prewarsports

This show is in the same hall as the National has been for the last 15 years in Chicago and it used to have over 1000 dealers but now they sell out at about 400. Seems to me like they are closing the door on a lot of dealers that could make the show better. I guess this is why the show is not what it used to be. Take away the corporate booths and auction houses and you are looking at about 200-300 dealers there to sell stuff. In the 1990's 200 booths would have been a local show at the armory, now its the "National Convention." Go figure.

This is why I don't set up anymore and don't really make it a priority to attend. I am a hard core collector and part time dealer and if it's not a big deal to me, what about the casual collector? All of the quality items go to auction and a lot of what is offered is regular run of the mill items. For those who never attended a pre Internet National you have no idea of how good they used to be.

I am not interested in new items, but I understand many are and everyone needs to be catered to, but the National in general has sold out to the sponsors and Tri Star. They could care less about the dealer or collector. It's a money grab for the people who run this show full time. What a joke. They get the sheep to flock to them then wear their sport coat and ride around in a golf cart acting like they're some kind of collecting royalty.

[Rich Klein]

I'll disagree with one thing. One of the reasons a couple of people are in carts is on the off-chance something occurs on the other side of the floor which needs their attention, they can get their much quicker. That's also why the booths of the dealer executive board is in the middle of the show floor. That way, the dealer board can fan out and assist anywhere at a minute's notice.

I have, and always will, provide constructive criticism of certain aspects of the National or where the show has been held (IE Atlantic City). but there are logical reasons for people such as John and the security head of the National to be in golf carts and I guarantee you it's NOT to lord over the show. And yes, in the spirit of full disclosure I know John and his family for more than 35 years now and they all work extremely hard throughout both the year and during the show on the National.

As for corporate sponsors, I also remember the days of no such thing (or very limited) as a corporate sponsor but that ship sailed a long time ago. The National could not exist in it's current state without the corporates. And many of the corporates, especially Panini (for us) have provided assistance to our twice a year Adat Chaverim non-profit show.

[LuckyLarry]

The show promoters and dealers don't care about collectors. If they did, the National would return to other parts of the country (west coast and south). The only thing that will cause this change is pressure from the corporate sponsors. I'm actually surprised that the corporate sponsors haven't demanded a west coast show.
Larry

[Rich Klein]

We had a long thread on this when Mike Berkus was still living and he commented on some of the issues with the National. To paraphrase our president: Who knew the National could be so complicated. I'll try to get that thread up in a bit.

Here is the thread from 2009 -- some salient points still operational

http://net54baseball.com/showthread....ht=Mike+Berkus

[edjs]

I thought this was a thread about Rhys needing a booth.

[imdaman1964]

Agree

[ncinin]

I recently found a program from the 1992 Atlanta National held in the spacious World Congress Center. This was a time when the National was at it's peak as far as attendance and many more dealers setup up.

While grilling this afternoon I quickly analyzed the floor plan from 1992 and 2017. I may be off by a small amount but this fairly close.

In 1992 there were around 878 booths. Around 542 were interior booths with 8 feet of space exposed to the public and 336 end cap booths with 16 feet of customer exposure.

According to the floor plan on the NSCC website in 2017 there are 508 booths. 196 10 X 10 booths with 16 feet of public exposure and 312 10 X 15 booths with 22 feet of public exposure. All booths are corner booths in a quadrant as in 1992 you had some endcaps but alot of interior booths with one side exposed to the public.

1992: 542 interior booths X 8 ft = 4,336 ft
336 endcap booths X 16 ft = 5,376 ft

total 9,712 feet

2017: 196 10 X 10 booths X 16 ft = 3,136 ft
312 10 X 15 booths X 22 ft = 6,864 ft

total 10,000 ft

I am willing to bet most people would think in 1992 there would have been much more exhibit space than 2017. There were some corporate table/booths in 1992 and much more in 2017. The booth numbers above do not include any corporate tables/booths.

Make what you want out of these numbers but I found it interesting.

Also keep in mind in 2017 and dealer may pick up to four booths. In 1992 you could pick up to two booths. Today you may see a dealer listed have multiple booths in his name but more than one dealer is setting up in this block. There are some instances where a dealer has two or three booths in his name and two or three dealers are setup in the dealer's booth space.

On the website they list 296 dealers but with multiple dealers setting up with each other there should be over 400 different dealers.

[tazdmb]

Rhys-Any update on your situation?